The Spanish low-cost airline Volotea, which recently canceled four of the nine routes it operated with Lanzarote, is going through a delicate economic moment conditioned by energy volatility and geopolitical uncertainty.
Volotea is currently negotiating with the State Industrial Holdings Company (SEPI) and other creditors to restructure the debt linked to the €200 million participatory loan that the Government authorized in June 2022 from the Fund for the Support of the Solvency of Strategic Companies, which is due in 2029.
The airline plans to close the refinancing agreement in December. In parallel, it is preparing a capital increase and foresees a staff reduction that will affect about 50 people at its Barcelona headquarters. While conversations to clean up its balance sheet progress, Volotea maintains that its usual operations, ticket sales, and future itinerary planning continue normally.
Behind this operational pullback on the island lies the need to reorganize the company's resources. Volotea is considering a drastic reduction of its fleet, which will go from the current 44 aircraft to a range of between 30 and 35 planes, concentrating its operations on Airbus A320 models.
The airline withdrew direct links a few weeks ago that connected César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport with the French cities of Brest, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, and Toulouse. After this cutback, the company's operations on the island are reduced to five connections: Asturias, Lille, Lyon, Montpellier, and Nantes.
The cancellations in Lanzarote are not an isolated event, but rather part of a larger reorganization affecting about twenty routes in Spain. In the Canary Islands, Volotea's cutbacks have also reached Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife South. Although the cancellations currently apply to the winter schedule, the tourism sector is confident that the routes will be resumed during the summer campaign.
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